Tag Archives | Business Plan

Remember, the Business Plan? Well, today I saw an interesting article on starting a business, in the New York Times online Small Business section. No surprise, the author, Tom Taulli, recommends writing a business plan as Step 1. He includes links for many helpful resources and even goes into some detail about the different forms […]

Back in one of the early posts on my blog, I outlined the reasons why I decided to put together a Business Plan. Here it is again. $2,000. Yes, I put my Business Plan together as one of the requirements for a grant application. The grant was being given by one of my women’s business […]

Remember back when we first started the Business Plan? After the cover page and index, the next section was the Executive Summary. At the time, I said don’t worry about the Executive Summary – that section goes in last. Well, here we are! The rest of our Business Plan is complete and we need to […]

Now here we come to the GOOD part! After all this hard work, how much money do we think we are going to make? In my last Business Plan post, I included every possible expense I could imagine. I put down what I needed, when I needed it. Yes, the rolling mill purchase could be […]

The Financial Analysis is quite important. If you are applying for a business loan it could be the most critical section of all, as these estimates will help determine if you are a good credit risk. All projections must be based on historical and/or industry information – no “winging” it here! This post will include […]

The Operations section is a description of how the product will be manufactured and sold. This should include a discussion of the company facilities, suppliers and product sales. I currently own a studio large enough to accommodate my new business. I currently have the equipment to make beaded and wire-wrapped jewelry, as well as some […]

This section describes the company structure, key management team members, their function and strengths. My company will have a jewelry designer, a jewelry fabricator, a customer service representative, a marketing specialist, a financial executive, an office manager and a salesperson. All of them will be me. Why do I think I can handle all this? […]

Part III deals with marketing strategy – how am I going to get customers? Art is a matter of individual taste. The more traffic I have, the better the chance that some of those people will like my work. My current mailing list with over 400 of my jewelry customers, will be an important initial […]

Back to business! Part II of the Market Analysis in the Business Plan is all about the competition. How does my company’s product and service compare to the competition in price, service and location? What is the market share and potential of each competitor? What is their reputation and image in the market? The first […]

I really didn’t mean to take so much time off here – but unfortunately, the flu had other plans for me. But I’m back, I’m healthy and I’m ready to tackle that Business Plan! After all, there is a $2,000 grant at stake here. For Marketing, Part I, I had to determine my target customer, […]